Nothing is irrevocably written in stone. Not even personal promises. In our high-tech world, most vendor contracts are provisional at best.
Forward-thinking software developers and their customers agree to put source code and other proprietary materials into escrow in order to protect what matters to them.
With a software escrow agreement, secure access to mission critical technology is provided if predetermined events and conditions take place. For software users, this helps you ensure continuity of your business, and is increasingly required for routine compliance and regulatory purposes. For the software developer, an escrow agreement ensures that your intellectual property rights are safeguarded.
Great care goes into the wording of technology escrow agreements; the interests of all parties must be properly represented. But after the signatures have dried and source code files and other proprietary materials are deposited, what ensures that this material will indeed fulfill the intended purpose of the escrow if a release condition occurs? Will you be able to recreate your software application if needed?
By verifying the contents of your escrow deposit and making sure that everything needed to compile the code is intact, you have taken the extra steps necessary — if there is ever an issue with your software vendor — to get back up and running as quickly as possible.
Demand for verification services has increased by 35 percent over the past five years.1 Savvy users of technology applications are taking extra precautions to maximize the payoff from investments in escrow deposits — and protect the total investment in software assets. These users of verification services realize that for their escrow accounts to have maximum value when needed, it takes more than simply depositing a set of source code files.
There are different levels of verification services — from basic to comprehensive — and each offers increasing levels of assurance that the technology can be recreated and used if predetermined events and conditions do occur.
This paper examines the types of verification services used in the escrow industry. It also discusses why verification has become a best practice for both the users of software and the developers creating the applications, as well as a solid recommendation by the lawyers who advise them.
NCC Group Software Resilience has acquired Iron Mountain’s Intellectual Property Management (IPM) business. For more information on the acquisition, please visit our dedicated information hub, or contact Iron Mountain IPM.
